Editorial: Nation fails to honor deal with veterans

Published: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 at 10:12 PM.

President Obama and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki say they are outraged about the appalling bureaucratic delays and cover-ups at veterans clinics around the country.

And well they should be, as should every American. But the nation and its veterans deserve answers and solutions, not just shared outrage.

The backlog of veterans awaiting treatment and processing of claims — a staggering 344,000 — predates the Obama administration. Indeed, then-Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged the problem in October 2007 when he told a town hall meeting in Iowa, “When 400,000 veterans are stuck on a waiting list for claims, we need a new sense of urgency.”

Furthermore, The Washington Times reported last week that Veterans Affairs officials warned the Obama-Biden transition team in the weeks after the 2008 presidential election that the department shouldn’t trust the wait times that its facilities were reporting.

Yet, more than five years into his presidency, the situation persists, only now with the added scandal of VA clinics allegedly falsifying records to obscure the delays.

It began with a VA facility in Phoenix, where as many as 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor. At least 40 died awaiting treatment. The clinic allegedly kept a secret list of wait times and falsified documents so as not to attract Washington’s attention.

That would be outrageous if it were an isolated incident, which sadly it wasn’t. VA employees at an outpatient clinic in Fort Collins, Colo., also allegedly falsified appointment records to hide the fact that as many as 6,300 veterans had waited months for treatment. Similar situations occurred in Wyoming and Texas. Interminable waits may have contributed to veterans’ deaths at other clinics nationwide.

President Obama and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki say they are outraged about the appalling bureaucratic delays and cover-ups at veterans clinics around the country.

And well they should be, as should every American. But the nation and its veterans deserve answers and solutions, not just shared outrage.

The backlog of veterans awaiting treatment and processing of claims — a staggering 344,000 — predates the Obama administration. Indeed, then-Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged the problem in October 2007 when he told a town hall meeting in Iowa, “When 400,000 veterans are stuck on a waiting list for claims, we need a new sense of urgency.”

Furthermore, The Washington Times reported last week that Veterans Affairs officials warned the Obama-Biden transition team in the weeks after the 2008 presidential election that the department shouldn’t trust the wait times that its facilities were reporting.

Yet, more than five years into his presidency, the situation persists, only now with the added scandal of VA clinics allegedly falsifying records to obscure the delays.

It began with a VA facility in Phoenix, where as many as 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor. At least 40 died awaiting treatment. The clinic allegedly kept a secret list of wait times and falsified documents so as not to attract Washington’s attention.

That would be outrageous if it were an isolated incident, which sadly it wasn’t. VA employees at an outpatient clinic in Fort Collins, Colo., also allegedly falsified appointment records to hide the fact that as many as 6,300 veterans had waited months for treatment. Similar situations occurred in Wyoming and Texas. Interminable waits may have contributed to veterans’ deaths at other clinics nationwide.

Shinseki, who has headed the VA since the beginning of Obama’s first term, last week testified bloodlessly and cluelessly about the scandal before a Senate committee, acting as if the buck got lost in the mail instead of landing squarely on his desk. He inspired no confidence that he is capable of fixing this mess. But replacing him would be a cosmetic move if the administration is not prepared to untangle the VA bureaucracy and Congress isn’t willing to appropriate more money to veterans’ health care.

When health care is in short supply it becomes rationed. Thus, you see veterans forced to wait an average of 160 days for the VA to process their claims, and appealing a decision through the agency red tape can take an astounding 1,598 days.

There’s plenty of evidence, too, that the bureau has mismanaged the money it has, wasting millions on unnecessary buildings instead of spending it on the men and women who have served their country and are suffering.

The federal government across administrations has failed to uphold its end of the bargain it made with those who serve in uniform: You make the sacrifice, and we’ll take care of you. The nation’s veterans deserve better. They need that urgency.

A version of this editorial first appeared in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a Halifax Media Group newspaper.